Fine Art Landscape Photographer

Howdy everyone,

I had travel agent make a reservation for me for this Friday (4 days away). I received email at 15:56 that shows me at economy seats. I opened app on the phone at 15:59 and in the app it shows me at first class seats for outgoing and returning flights (both same day). I was able to change my seats from 4th row to 1st row. Pretty strange since I never even received emails from AA that upgrade went thru.

Has this ever happen to anyone else?

PS. At 4:04 I received an email from AA about upgrade for first flight

ComplexAnalysis

Yes -- happens often to me on some routes when booking inside the upgrade window!

I've actually received the "You have been upgraded" email before my official ticketing confirmation email a few times.

pauleeepaul

It has been a awhile since i have had this happen but i must say it is one of the most gratifying experiences as a frequent flyer. Back in the day it would be a complete surprise, now with EF you can anticipate it, but still a happy outcome.

metallo

It was even better a few years ago when AA still offered holds on revenue tickets within 7 days of departure. Every now and then, as EXP, I'd put a hold on a ticket a few days out, and the upgrade would actually go through while the ticket was still held. I tended to ticket/confirm most of those.

SpammersAreScum

Some months back, I went through a TPA-MIA booking process to check something -- don't even remember what any more -- but stopped short of taking any action on the payment page. It was not a flight I intended to take, and I just abandoned the process.

A few hours later I got an email saying I'd been (auto-)upgraded for the flight, and had a moment of panic.

Zacnlinc

Noted... I had a similar panic moment TODAY with a hotel reservation app indicating I I'm able to check in YESTERDAY. I was like, Oh No... Did I get the dates wrong and they're expecting me today and I'm not expecting to be there until tomorrow!! No.. Apparently there's been a chance that app check-in's are now at 48 hrs. prior to check-in.

PHX_Flyer

Same here. Got an upgrade email before my ticket confirmation arrived.

dc9flyernwa

ComplexAnalysis

TBD -- upgrading can occur within the booking window, but it doesn't necessarily occur right at the window or shortly after. I don't think anyone, but AA would actually know. I've sometimes been upgraded into an almost full F cabin at T-100, but also into an empty one at T-24.

ijgordon

Actually, "back in the day" you could almost be certain of it, because EF had access to the X/R inventories used for elite upgrades. And as non-EXP, during the booking process, you would have to request the upgrade anyway, and if there was X/R inventory, you knew that right after you submitted the upgrade request, it would come back confirmed! (Before even ticketing, and I think before even officially putting the flight on hold).

But I suspect you're talking about further "back in the day", before ExpertFlyer even existed. What a wild west that was!

mvoight

I have often been upgraded without getting an email.
One time I was upgraded after booking, but before purchasing a US to Europe ticket using a SWU.........I have no idea how. I know I called to put the ticket on hold and mentioned I was using an SWU.
That was years ago when I was EXP

HLCinCOU

So allow me to be the malcontent around here. I get these "instant" upgrades fairly regularly...and they cause me a fair bit of headache, cause they're too fast! I'll book something in Concur, or occasionally on the phone with AMEX Business Travel, and the upgrade will clear before the agency gets it ticketed...and that will hang the whole thing. It won't ever ticket unless I call back into AMEX and have them cancel and rebook it. On two occasions I showed up at the airport and walked up to security while working my phone to get a boarding pass, only to see there wasn't one because I never got ticketed because an upgrade broke everything. Nowadays I always go look at the AA website about 15 min after booking just to make sure it got ticketed.

One of those things...sure seems silly to be here whining about how fast I get upgraded. But man if they could just dial it back so upgrades clear 30 min after booking instead of immediately it would be a big improvement.

enpremiere

If there was one place in the bowls of the Internet to find complaints with upgrades clearing too quickly, FlyerTalk would be it.

HLCinCOU

I heartily agree (and liked your post), and I very much hope my attempts at making fun of myself for doing such a thing were interpreted well. That said, on two occasions I booked tickets, then went to the airport the next day and didn't have a boarding pass, entirely because of this bug. So, that's an issue. It's something I now know about and deal with; I don't call up and yell at AA or AMEX when it happens. But just like any other thing that would cause a failure of ticketing after the traveler got a booking confirmation, it's a problem the airlines and/or travel agencies should address.

SamOF

I'm confused--if the upgrade clearing too quickly prevents a reservation from being ticketed, preventing the customer from flying, why is it odd that there would be a complaint about it?